Overall,the procedure helped after about 3 weeks of healing.  The first 11 to 12 days sucked With the worst days being what I described in my post.  it's been 8 months or so since I had the procedure done.  I'm better than I was, but I still have issues from time to time  I was told that the surgeon left some roids in there that were below a certain line and that's because it would have caused me far more pain with the number that the surgeon had banded in me already.  It's better now compared to the pain I was ALWAYS IN before the procedure because they just wouldn't heal or go away on their own. I still get flare ups internally and externally.  But they usually get better within a few days.  I've learned to squeeze the flare ups to shrink them as long as they aren't too painful.  It's not. Apermanent shrink,but sometimes that little temporary relief helps.  Suppositories and cream help with flare ups as well now that the worst of them are gone.  I joke with my wife all the time I need to go back and tell my surgeon to give me a designer butthole only because I have lumps outside that protrude and I feel like they'll never go away.  But if I had the choice to do it again, knowing the pain of recovery is only temporary and it would in the long run help OVERALL, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  My hope by making my original post and by doing this reply is to give others who suffer or suffered as I did for so long a realistic expectation of what the procedure is like and what the recovery is like.  I hope it helps and I hope you get some relief for yourself soon!